Monday, April 29, 2013

Just as Long on the Outside as on the Inside

As of yesterday at 4:45am Baby Jett has spent just as much time on the outside as he spent on the inside.

38 weeks 2 days.

And coincidentally to commemorate this milestone...we're in the midst of a Wonder Week.

Or at least that's what I'm pretending because sleep has SUCKED this week.  And it's easier for me to have an excuse like "it's a wonder week!" than to think he might start sleeping shitty all the time again.

We haven't regressed so far that we're back at waking every 3 hours but for the past few nights he's been waking up 2 hours after going down SCREAMING HIS FACE OFF.  I've ended up nursing him even though it's before my 3 hour mark because he's just been SOOOO upset.  Luckily this hasn't ruined all the sleep training as he'll then sleep for 4-6 hours....so....wonder week, it's just a wonder week!!!

Anyway, it's pretty crazy amazeballs how much these little people change in such a short period of time.  

Before having my own baby it sure didn't seem like that big of a deal that they go from little blobs to walking babbling little PEOPLE in less than a year...but now I get it.  I GET IT!  And OMG TIME IS GOING SO FAST!

But more importantly can you believe I could have theoretically incubated another person already?

I'm not sure which is more impressive, how much the baby has changed on the outside in 9 months or the fact that a person develops from a sperm and an egg in 9 months.

Doesn't matter because ALL OF IT IS AMAZING.

In other news, I'm going to have to write a breastfeeding post soon because when I signed on for this breastfeeding for a year thing I didn't realize that my 9 month old would be almost walking and able to nurse while standing, grab my boobs out of my shirt whenever the urge strikes him, or that he would start playing with my nipple, studying and inspecting it and pinching it!...I reserved these actions for toddlers and I WAS NEVER GOING TO BE NURSING A TODDLER!  I was always going to be nursing for at least a year but less than 2 years...which is still the goal.  But clearly I underestimated what exactly that entails.

I feel like I'm nursing a toddler already and I don't foresee this ending anytime soon.  How exactly does one stop nursing anyway?  I use my boob ALL THE TIME.  Seriously this kid rarely goes more than an hour or two without at least a quick nurse and I thought I would be weaning near the one year mark???

So many things about parenthood leave me feeling like I was SUCH AN IDIOT.  

I thought I would cosleep for a year and it would just work by my sheer force of will.  Or BECAUSE COSLEEPING IS NATURAL and all mammals do it.  I've changed my mind rather drastically on this one and no longer promote cosleeping for longer than 6 months.

I thought you could teach your kid to nap with noise by always having it noisy when they nap. Baby Jett gets woken up VERY easily these days and he's been napping on the go since he was born, which means he can fall asleep with lots of noise, but after he's been asleep for 20-30 minutes a horn honking will wake him up...your kid can either sleep with noise or they can't...just like adults.  You can't teach them this skill.

I thought babyproofing was stupid and you should just teach your child to stay away from dangerous things...I underestimated how their mobility and their cognitive abilities to understand DANGER do not go hand in hand...we've definitely had to babyproof.

And the list goes on and on and on.

Amusingly I'm assuming none of the skills and knowledge I've acquired as a parent will help me at all with Baby #2 because EVERY BABY IS SO DAMN DIFFERENT.

But I've regressed from wherever I started this post...

Oh yes, congratulations Baby Jett you've made it to your Wombiversary!  And you know Congrats to me for keeping him alive this long!


5 comments:

  1. OMG... Kenzie and I laughed so hard we were crying this weekend talking about all the things about Motherhood that make you feel like an idiot. That part of your post made me smile! We were like "remember how we were going to be all cute and wear make-up and walk around the mall with our babies??" HAHAHAHAHA! :-) But seriously... Jett reminds me of Austin sooo much. I went from a 6-month-old to a toddler. He was just suddenly a toddler one day and it was weird. When that happens sooner than you expect it throws you (and plans) off course for sure. I still bet he'll be walking very very soon!

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  2. This post made me count the number of weeks the babies have been "out" and I realized that Sunday is their "wombiversary" !!! WHAT!

    Congratulations to you for keeping him alive and happy and healthy all this time!

    In regards to the sleeping - the only skill you can teach them (kinda) is how to put themselves back to sleep. So they might not sleep through the noise but they might be able to learn how to go BACK to sleep after being disturbed. But it is different for each baby anyway. Having twins I now have a front seat to just how different babies can be hahaha

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  3. Yep, there are so many things I do and don't do!!! He is gorgeous!!

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  4. "So many things about parenthood leave me feeling like I was SUCH AN IDIOT." -- HAHAHAHA. SO SO true. Cracks me up. I felt the same way about having a "flexible" baby - little did I know how much happier we ALL were if she had a bit of a schedule. Sure, she was flexible the first 6 months - but that's because she had 20 min naps and didn't sleep well at night. I was fine with it until then, because she was little, my ZOMG, it's so much nicer to lay her down now and know that she'll be out for hours!!

    Also, breastfeeding - yes. I had NO IDEA how active 9+ month olds are. Stella nurses for comfort now (almost 17m) and I know we're close to done, but DAMMIT, how am I going to calm her down after owies or when she's tired if I don't have my boob?? SHIT SHIT SHIT.

    We co-slept for 6 months. It was awesome. My DH made me put her in a crib. I protested and cried. In retrospect - 6 months was the perfect time to move her. I hate it when he's right.

    Awesome post. :)

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  5. OMG! Your post rings so true on so many levels!!

    Roo started doing the EXACT same thing as Jett. It's almost as if a light bulb went off in her head and told her to take a look at what she was getting her food from. One day she just pulled back and started playing with my nipples. It was hilarious!

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